“The Coward” by Jarred McGinnis, facing the harsh fate

The exercise was not easy: to partly tell his own paraplegic story, without falling into too linearly autobiographical narration. Jarred McGinnis has won his bet. The American writer, who grew up between Florida and Texas, knew how to transform his personal drama into an offbeat novel which, from the first lines, has nothing to do with compassion, preferring on the contrary dark humor and self-mockery. The author certainly expresses anger, shame, bitterness, conflicts with oneself and others, or even despair, but these ground swells unfold in a ferociously caustic tone. And this explosive cocktail does not overshadow the tenderness that finally emerges from this first novel, a long journey that goes from cowardice to the courage to love, through forgiveness and reconciliation.